Customer Reviews:
Film: A Critical Introduction.......2007-09-12
Great book for a humanities class! I recommend it.
Great into to Cinema! Delivery quick and good condition.
A Superior, Well-Developed, Introductory Text . . ........2007-01-29
Whether you are a student or professor, there are a wide range of introductory film texts from which to choose -- it can be a bit overwhelming and a mistake is costly! This is especially true if you are the professor who is selecting an expensive text for your students (and they are all expensive) . . . you want provide them with a text worthy of the expense AND you do not want to invest additional hours photocopying material from other texts to compensate for less-than-fantastic chapters.
With this in mind, allow me to say that Pramaggoire and Wallis' text is the best I have ever encountered . . . bar none. I have used this text for over a year now, and the response has been extremely positive. It may initially seem irrelevant, but this text is extraordinary aesthetically appealing. Why is this important? Because we are talking about professors and students who have an interest in a VISUAL art. This text presents large, lush examples to compliment the text: not all texts invest this effort or expense. Moreover, the selected examples are spot-on . . . they are not randomly chosen BUT are the quintessential example of any given technique.
What makes this text great is both the organization (which others have mentioned) and the accessibility. Let's say you are not taking a formal class in film, you would have no problem reading this text solo. It is that understandable . . . and, let's face it, if an author cannot clearly explain an idea to a lay-person then he/she really do not know the subject. Pramaggoire and Wallis KNOW their subject.
And while there are several "well-written" texts on the market, not all incorporate contemporary examples. While Orson Wells and Ingmar Bergman are key to understanding film, one cannot successful base an introductory text on "The Greats." It simply does not engage the new student. Luckily, this text includes essential examples from film history as well as contemporary examples (like "Super Size Me," "Waking Life," "The Piano" and "Requiem for a Dream"). I am especially fond of the short analysis of Harron's "American Psycho" (an oft overlooked, cinematic masterpiece).
One final reason to select this text: while other writers are rehashing old critical approaches to film, Pramaggoire and Wallis select the most relevant and contemporary ones. They instruct readers on how to view a film in the context of race, gender, sexuality, class, and national identity: all of which are crucial to understanding film! Likewise, they address "film authorship" which is equally as valuable. The text is never bogged-down by jargon (many are) . . . nor is it heavy-handed in its approach. Unlike most texts, this one wants to be understood.
You will find texts with DVD-ROMs, texts with "writing" supplements, texts with online-course access, and other "bells and whistles" . . . but this text does not NEED any of that. (It seems the others are trying to compensate for their short-comings by including "bonus" material . . . but it just becomes MESSY!). I plan to continue using this text as a tool for teaching film . . . it is, BY FAR, the best on the market. It is "smart," beautiful, and completely accessible. Whether you are a professor seeking a new text or a lay-person looking to enhance your knowledge of film, you cannot go wrong with this work. Trust me, it is worth the price!!
Fabulous introduction!.......2006-01-19
This is not only the best introduction to film studies that I've found, it's also a model of how a textbook should be organized and written. After an opening chapter on plot structure and thematic analysis, it goes in-depth into the elements of film form, with chapters on narrative form, mise en scene, cinematography, editing, and sound. The final section includes chapters on documentary and avant-garde film, writing about film, social context, ideology, stardom, genre, film authorship, and the economics of the film industry. Everything is covered very in-depth and in detail, with lots of excellent examples and photos. There is also a helpful film glossary in back. The writing is model of clarity and organization. This textbook is notable for the way that writing instruction is integrated into the text. Each chapter concludes with brief essay which exemplifies the concepts and terms used in the chapter, and includes margin notes which discuss the formal and rhetorical features of a college essay, including organization, research, thesis statement, and so on. There is also a concise chapter devoted entirely to writing about film, including the different kinds of essays typically assigned by professors. Students who read carefully will be well prepared to write film analysis papers for their college classes. Since this is an introductory text, it doesn't try to give complete coverage to film history and film theory, although these topics are introduced. Film history and theory really need to be covered in separate books and classes, as the authors recognize.
As Reference & Textbook for "Intro to Film".......2005-08-26
As a current user of Giannetti's "Understanding Movies", I find this new text to be a breath of fresh air. First impressions: the initial page prior to the content is a splash-page still from Visconti's "The Leopard", a film that perhaps has seen recent resurgence of interest in the film community. Overall, the text tries to convey the thesis of "Film as Art & Cultural Phenomenon" with thorough examples & concise explanations. Also appreciated is the brief desc of "persistence of vision & the phi phenomenon" & other more operational/technical aspects of film, filming & projection equipment.
The book features examples of what could be student film analysis papers. It also goes about analyzing the road to writing essays with an adequate thesis statement.
The book's highlight is the Chapter on "Writing about Film", which will likely help students in their film journal writing & paper thesis formulation. There won't be an intro book to tell the entire "story" of film, but Prammagiore & Wallis's book provides a commendable "structure" with film stills that ties closely to their text.
If you're looking for a summary of general film history in intro film studies, I don't think you'll find it here. Still a highly recommended book for students of film.
Book Description
Film is an art form with a language and an aesthetic all its own. Since 1979, David Bordwell's and Kristin Thompson's Film Art has been the best-selling and widely respected introduction to the analysis of cinema. While it continues to provide the best introduction to the fundamentals of serious film study, the eighth edition has been revised be more classroom friendly by introducing film techniques earlier in the text, followed by the chapters on Film Genres. Supported by a text-specific Tutorial CD-ROM with video clips, Film Art is automatically packaged with this outstanding student learning tool.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent!.......2007-09-29
I purchased this book for a college course I'm taking. The book came promptly and in excellent condition. Would definitely recommend...
Book Description
Shaped by Richard Barsam's more than twenty years of classroom experience, Looking at Movies uses students' natural enthusiasm for the subject as a foundation for going beyond enjoyment toward intelligent, analytical understanding of movies. Professor Barsam's clear writing, thorough presentation of fundamental film principles, and unique pedagogical additions to the traditional introductory text—including an entire chapter devoted to analytical writing—ensure that students approach screenings and writing assignments equipped with the analytical tools necessary to be active, insightful interpreters of movies. Looking at Movies is accompanied by two outstanding multimedia resources, the Student website and CD-ROM, both of which are integrated directly with the text.
Customer Reviews:
ontime and in good shape.......2007-01-10
It was in good shape, and I received it ontime.
Easily worth a look.......2004-01-03
Barsam's is a welcome addition to the field of introductory film texts, superior in many respects to similar entries (Giannatti, Phillips, etc.). The style is reader-friendly but in no way condescending; the examples are generous and representative of classic as well as current developments; the coverage is comprehensive. Indeed, with the accompanying CD-Rom and Website, the text is a virtual encyclopedia of information about the cinema, thereby justifying its slightly higher price. Moreover, this is the first text that begins to realize many of the media-specific qualities of the subject it attempts to illuminate.
This is a first edition, and understandably there are problems, some admittedly attributable to individual preferences. A few things I've noticed:
1. The website can be "buggy," at least to a Macintosh operating system. Numerous "Java Script" messages are appearing along with failures to play visual and audio files. Even with the misfires, the website is the most impressive I've ever used in conjunction with a text. Because of it, an instructor need have no apologies about using a text that includes discussions of numerous films unknown to students and impossible to screen in class.
2. The accompanying VCD contains valuable film examples but unfortunately doesn't include any clips from "Citizen Kane." I would hope that a future edition includes a DVD with Kane and other useful illustrative and instructive materials. Website information and quizzes often have too many technical glitches to make them effective time-savers for a teacher, who now must solve each student's difficulties with the website (the required 8-digit password doesn't help).
3. Barsam uses much personal and arbitrary descriptive language that subsequently becomes "reified" in the quizzes about the components of film. As a result, the quiz becomes as much about remembering the specific language of the author and textbook as about the properties of a filmic element (equally true of the book's competitors).
4. The order of topics will not appeal to every instructor. For example, the most basic element of film--the shot--isn't addressed until the discussion of photography in Chapter 4. Also, the attention to previously marginalized films and filmmakers can be quite uneven. African-American issues receive considerable space in several chapters in the book and on the website whereas feminist issues receive a couple of paragraphs. Moreover, there is very little consideration of "auteurism," the enabling and prevailing approach of academic cinema studies.
5. The author's lack of experience with literary and composition issues is frequently apparent, though to the book's credit ample space is given to student writing. Still, the treatment of point of view in cinema becomes problematic, especially when the author refers to the camera's perspective as "omniscient." Also, the inclusion of an exemplary student essay, while extremely welcome, represents an unfortunate choice, in my opinion, since the essay is somewhat sophomoric, exhibits clumsy writing and omits a thesis(!).
All in all, a promising production by Barsam and Norton. I look forward to giving it a test drive.
a very good and comprehensive introductory book.......2003-09-18
Just got this book and found it to be very well structured, with a comprehensive yet easy to understand language that made the material very compelling. It comes with a cd rom with film clips and it also offers website interactivity that supports and expands on the material covered by the book. The layout is very sleek and although a bit pricey ($ 70), this is what college textbooks go for now, so even at this price this book compares more than favorably to what's out there.
Book Description
" . . . this engaging, thoughtful, accessible, and comprehensive work will stimulate many." --
Choice
Noted film scholar Bill Nichols provides a one-of-a-kind overview of the most important topics and issues in documentary history and criticism. Designed for students in any field that makes use of visual evidence and persuasive strategies, from the law to anthropology, and from history to journalism, this book spells out the issues and concepts that characterize documentary film and video production and provides the foundational key to further explorations in this exceptionally vital area of filmmaking today.
Customer Reviews:
Bad Introduction.......2006-06-19
How to take seriously a comparatively recent book that first claims that all films are documentaries and than goes on to explain how there are various kinds of documentaries (some of which are obviously not documentaries at all)? Naturally, the terminology in film studies is not very well systematized, but there is no need to forget the work done in this field so far - this contemporary book, in a sense, seems to have been written immediately after classical (but somewhat dated) writings of John Grierson and Andre Bazin! A great deal of Grierson's and Bazin's writing is still interesting, much of it still holds water, but this is a diluted and clumsily combined version of their respective approaches.
"Reality" is a dangerous concept if we don't explain or define it, so is "realism" and of course, in this book particularly, so is the "documentary".
After the start that confuses the issues, some lucid observations and potentially explanatory examples lead nowhere and promote confusion. It's a pity.
Book Description
An introduction to the film medium for both general readers and college-level film students. The book has three parts: The Expressiveness of Film Techniques, Types of Films, and Responses to Films. Also included are marginal definitions, a twenty-page illustrated glossary, a forty-page four column chronology, and more than 500 photographs and drawings.
Customer Reviews:
THE DEFINITIVE INTRODUCTORY TEXT FOR FILM STUDY.......2006-07-15
An outstanding beginning text for film study students. I am a film study and English teacher at the high school level, and I have been using this text for the past two years. The first four chapters provide essential terminology to effectively read and analyze a film. From mise-en-scene to cinematography to editing to sound, these first four chapters develop a solid foundation for beginning film students. The book provides classic film examples, both early classics and modern classics, and there are numerous examples of shots from these films to illustrate film terminology. The second half of the book provides some meaningful discussion of film genres, the context of film in society, and alternatives to live-action films. As a beginning resource, this text is user-friendly and interesting. I highly recommend this textbook for the beginning film study student.
Finally--a Relevant Film Book!.......2005-07-29
FILM by William H. Phillips has as its strongest point its relevancy to current events in light of past film endeavors. Recent films are discussed in the 3rd Edition as well as other editions with clarity and insight. Also, it is a rare film book that discusses the economics of film making and marketing of film in theaters and video formatting.
This work shows that other countries than the US also have an important cinematic history. This book encompasses both the American scene and the world historical perspective with its extensive chronology 1895-2003, and the relationship and mirroring of world events in film. This is a book to add to any collection of film reference guides. It is prime value for the money with 669 pages of prolific color plates and black and white photos of actual film shots.
Not very informative.......2005-04-04
I've taken a couple film classes in college so far and I have to say that this book is not very enlightening. For the most part, this book discusses film concepts and assigns them terms. It spends a lot of time stating the obvious and little time going into any significant depth.
It is a long book full of general information that you will already know if you are a regular movie-goer, nevermind a student of film. It lacks significant coverage of the history of film.
I recommend avoiding it if you can and buying an inexpensive used copy if you must buy it for class.
You can learn far more about film simply by using Google or Wikipedia. The freely available information on the Internet far surpasses the mediocre offerings of this book! Don't waste your money!
Informative, easy to grasp, introduction to film concepts.......1999-09-11
Phillips has written an accessible, up-to-date, and lively book suitable for anyone who wants a basic understanding of the art of film. It is arranged so that a discussion of film techniques is first, liberally illustrated with shots from numerous films (including newer releases). One of the nice features of the book is it identifies and points out the differences between publicity stills and frame enlargments. The rest of the book discusses how movies are developed, their sources, genres, and characteristics. There is a detailed chapter on alternatives to live-action films (especially focused on animation). The book's final section addresses the social meanings of films, and provides a sample analysis of Altman's "The Player." Throughout the text are sample student papers, to demonstrate how to write about film in a critical way. In the introductory film appreciation class that I teach, students preferred this book to Bordwell and Thompson's "Film Art." For them, all the examples and photographs enhanced the concepts, while the marginal definitions helped them remember key terms. Students also appreciated the inclusion of recent movies they have seen, as well as classics like "Citizen Kane." From this college professor's point of view, the book is best for beginners, who just want to know more about film techniques and analysis. However, even advanced students would find it a useful summary of film concepts.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent as a Historical Text Book
- Not very good...
- A very useful beginners guide to American film.
- Movie spoiler
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American Cinema/American Culture
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Anatomy of Film
ASIN: 007004466X |
Book Description
Developed to accompany the Annenberg-funded telecourse American Cinema, and written under the aegis of The New York Center for Visual History, this text offers a fascinating look at the interplay between the movie industry and mass culture in America.
Ideal for film appreciation and film and culture courses found in Cinema Studies, English, History, American Studies, or other departments, American Cinema/American Culture first examines the industry, its narrative conventions, and its cinematographic style.
Following this introduction, students are exposed to the sweep of film history in the U.S. using five genres as the bases for discussion and focusing on the point at which each had the greatest affect on the industry, film aesthetics, and American culture.
Finally, the book concludes with a look at Hollywood post World War II, giving separate chapter coverage to the effects of the Cold War, television, the counterculture of the Sixties, directors from the film school generation, and the trends of the Eighties and Nineties.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent as a Historical Text Book.......2007-03-24
So, I expected this book to be a bit more fun. Unfortunately, the fun element is missing. However, in fairness, the book serves as a thorough textbook for the history of American Cinema and its techniques and various genres. I did enjoy reading about the early studio system and the vast amount of control this oligopoly held. There were some very good critiques and studies of specific films, and a bit about specific actors and actresses. Even a bit about directors. Though packed with information, the book just lacks an entertainment value that it could and should have pulled off based on the subject matter.
The different genres studied include:
Westerns
War Movies
Silent Films
Film Noire
Screwball Comedies
As well as an overall dissertation on Classical Hollywood Style and its various techniques.
Not very good..........2005-03-05
I got this book for a class on the history of cinema. Unfortunately, as the title implies, it only deals with American Cinema. If this is a book for school, check out the class to see if foreign films and film history will be discussed. This book is, again, as the title implies--one-sided. Most of the movies it discusses, gives away crucial plot-points and endings. Some movies that I've been dying to see were ruined in just one or two sentences. This book is also very puffed-up and biased (I don't know any other way of explaining it). Many times throughout the book, Belton seems like James Lipton of "Inside the Actor's Studio", and goes on and on about the greatness of Hollywood, actors, director's, and films with nothing negative to say. It's not at all critical of anything and the author frequently inserts his own interpretation of films into the general text, which I found a little pompous. The book does offer up some interesting facts about the early history and the birth of cinema, but there's something about the way this book was written that makes it hard to stay interested. I think the chapters about film genres exaggerate the importance of some of them, and neglects other genres completely, ie. Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Sci-fi, Animation, Epics, etc. Again, question the instructor and/or look at the class syllabus before siging up if this is the only book for this class. I don't believe this is a comprehensive and unbiased view of cinema and it's history.
A very useful beginners guide to American film........2003-01-08
Years ago I took an intro-level film class at a community college. This was the text for the class. It was accompanied (at least in my class) by a PBS video series that combined film clips with interviews and historical information. Going into the class I had little more than a passing interest in film and film history. But after taking that class, my passion for film has grown exponentially with each year. But back to the book, I really liked this book and highlighted my way from the front cover to the back cover. There are of course limitations to this book. Firstly, it deals only with American films. Secondly, this book barely breaks the 300-page mark - hardly a comprehensive volume. You aren't going to get any information on John Cassavetes here or anything. Now if you have a chance to use this book in conjunction with the PBS films, I think you'll do much better (in fact I think the vids even give a nod to Cassavetes), but even then please note that this material is for an INTRO-level film class, and won't be much good for someone who already knows a fair amount about American film. But with that in mind, the book still has a lot to offer someone looking to introduce themselves to film history.
The first third of the book starts with the birth of film, moves quickly on to the Hollywood studio system, and walks us through the basics of film style (camerawork, lighting, editing, etc.). The second third covers the basics of film genre; there is a chapter about film noir, one on comedies, one on war films, and one on westerns. This second section was particularly useful to me. I could read each chapter, jot down a list of promising titles, hit my local video store, and I was good to go. The third section covers American film after World War II. In this section things seem a little compressed. 110 pages for 50 years of film? A lot is lost on the cutting room floor. But there's lots to dig into all the same. There's a chapter on Hollywood during the McCarthy years (yikes!), one on film's evolution during the emergence of television, a chapter on 1960s counterculture films, one on the film school directors of the 1970s and 1980s, and finally a pretty weak chapter on film in the 1990s. Oh yeah, and at the end of the book there's a handy glossary (in case you're ever stuck on what point-of-view editing is) and a pretty thorough index.
Again, not a book for someone who already has a good feel for film history. But definitely a great resource for someone new to film studies, or for someone who has trouble finding a movie at Blockbuster on Fridays. It did a great job getting me excited about movies, and I imagine its done the same for others.... A good companion to this text (or possibly an all-out replacement of it) is Scorsese's VHS/DVD, "A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies."
Movie spoiler.......2002-10-08
This would be a great book to read if you have no intention of watching the films discussed within, or if you've already seen them. On quite a few films, it tells the whole plot, in detail, from opening to end credits.
I also don't like the prose of the author, as he excessively uses sentences "in quotations". The writing structure is very formulaic and boring. The "5 paragraph essay" format is good for high school students learning to write, but imagine an entire book written that way. I can only read it for 15 minutes before losing interest.
The book does, however, provide plenty of examples from a variety of films.
This book is a companion piece to the PBS series by the same name. The series is much more interesting. Don't bother with the book. A much better film text is "Film: An Introduction", by William Phillips, ISBN: 0312258968.
Amazon.com
Film Art is often assigned to college students taking their first film class. Authors David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson do not follow the traditional method of teaching film art through a close analysis of individual films. Instead, they provide an overview of the major issues students confront when they watch movies. In clear, straightforward prose, the authors describe and dissect the complexities of filmmaking, film narrative, film form, and film technique. This book serves as a fine introduction not only to the field of film studies, but also to the theories and concerns of two of the most important scholars in that field.
Book Description
Known for its outstanding scholarship and comprehensive coverage, Bordwell and Thompson's Film Art provides a firm foundation for introductory film courses. It explains the techniques specific to film as a medium, discusses the principles by which entire films are constructed, and explores how these techniques and formal principles have changed over the history of moviemaking. The authors seek to fully apprise students of the rich array of choices available to filmmakers while sharpening their analytical skills as viewers.
Customer Reviews:
Really good read considering it's a textbook.......2007-04-06
This was assigned in my film history class; but I plan to read the whole thing again later, because it is not only informative but it's also a very good read. It's well organized and puts together a cohesive look at how films go together. I don't give it full marks because it does have the usual murky areas and overly textbook-ish spots. It's also way overpriced for something that isn't available new and yet is not a 'vintage' book.
Excellent first text for film students.......2005-08-20
I'm learning film in the first year at college, and this text is proving its worth. It's got all the basic and major theory concepts, with bucketloads of examples, film stills and diagrams to back up the theory, so you never feel like there's no practical application for what you're learning. Most of the time, the examples are from popular and/or classic films, so you're bound to know what Bordwell and Thompson are talking about as they introduce new ideas.
Nowdays I can't watch films or TV shows without noticing how obvious some of the techniques described in this book are. It's really quite satisfying knowing how to 'read' the language of film, and having an edge over your friends when you go to the movies :)
There are other choices!!.......2003-02-17
This book serves as only a general intro. to film, but even at the level of general intro., Bruce Kawin's How Movies Work or Louis Giannetti's Understanding Movies is better than this one in many respects, particularly Kawin's.
Bordwell is often hailed as the giant of cinema studies. Yes, the guy has watched literally a lot of movies, but apart from his Narration in Fiction Film, which is a respectable work in its deployment of Russian Formalism, his other stuff is just commonsensical view. I personally don't find his books argumentative enough. Planet Hong Kong, for instance, although well-researched, is an extremely limited view of Hong Kong cinema and pays no attention to understand the philosophical complexities of Wong Kar-wai's movies, not to mention his ignorance of some truly innovative directors such as Fruit Chan, whose postcolonial sensibility has yet to be acknowledged.
His recent book Post-theory is anti-psychoanalytic, a move that is a disgrace to students/lovers of film theory. I am not saying that only psychoanalysis (if you read Joan Copjec's essay Orthopsychic Subject in Read My Desire, you will know that a lot of people thinking they use psychoanalysis properly to "do" film studies are wrong) and other structural / poststructural discourses are the only ways to understand films, but they are more academic and serious ways to make an argument that would expand our horizons. The film world is now more interested in Deleuze and perhaps other Lacanian concepts such as the real, Bordwell's work is really dated and anti-intellectual.
A better book than this on the art of film?? Naaa!!!!!.......2002-04-24
This book is useful as a university textbook, but is also excellent for filmgoers who would like to understand a bit more than the average audience.
The preeminent introductory textbook book on the art of film.......2002-01-21
Teaching film requires you to look at film. The second week of my film course (they are always night classes that meet once a week so that you have enough time to actually screen something) I always drag in about 50 videotapes to work through the basic vocabulary of the cinema, covering everything from the close-up ("Queen Christina") to the crane-shot ("Gone With the Wind"), from tracking shots ("Touch of Evil") to the jump cut ("2001: A Space Odyssey"). Film textbooks face an inherent limitation in turns of what they can present on the printed page. However, "Film Art: An Introduction" by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson is the proverbial exception to the rule. This is the preeminent introductory film textbook because it has literally hundreds of frames from classic and lesser known films, used to illustrate the key concepts of mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing.
"Film Art" is divided into five main sections: (I) Types of Filmmaking, Types of Films" covers how films are produced and the basic types/genres of films. (II) "Film Form" examines both narrative and nonnarrative formal systems in film, using "Citizen Kane" as a case study for narrative form. (III) "Film Style" is the main section of the textbook, dealing with the shot in terms of both mise-en-scene and cinematography, how editing relates shot to shot, and the function of sound. This section concludes with an analysis of film style in five diverse films. (IV) "Critical Analysis of Film" provides four distinct critical frames of reference and analysis of various films: Classical Narrative Cinema in "His Girl Friday," "North by Northwest" and "Do The Right Thing"; Narrative Alternatives to Classical Filmmaking in "Breathless" and "Tokyo Story"; Documentary Form in "High School" and "Man with a Movie Camera"; and From, Style and Ideology in "Meet Me in St. Louis" and "Raging Bull" (and if that last combination does not give you an indication of the breadth of the examples used by Bordwell and Thompson, nothing will). The textbook concludes with a bibliography, glossary and list of helpful websites.
There are two major strengths to this textbook. First, its complete coverage of cinematic concepts. I think that everyone learns how to "read" a film, but the vast majority of people would not know that the baptism sequence in "The Godfather" is a prime example of "American montage." You read this textbook and you will become aware of things you already understood on a more abstract level. Additionally, they do not stop at first or second level terms, but get into the absolute nuts and bolts of cinema. Second, the use of specific examples from numerous films to demonstrate these concepts. Unless you have a film textbook that has a CD-Rom with miniature film clips, you cannot find one superior to what Bordwell and Thompson offer up here. Furthermore, their use of examples clearly demonstrates their formidable knowledge of the field. The only downside to using this textbook in your film class is that you might have a problem convincing your students you know half as much as this pair.
Book Description
Slavoj Zizek, a leading intellectual in the new social movements in Eastern Europe, provides a virtuoso reading of the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan through the works of contemporary popular culture, from horror fiction and detective thrillers to popular romances and Hitchcock films.
Slavoj Zizek is a Researcher in the Institute of Sociology at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He ran as a proreform candidate for the presidency of the republic of Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia, in 1990.
Customer Reviews:
Lacanian heresy inside! Beware of being tainted!.......2004-10-05
I am struck by the negative reviews that caution readers: "Zizek is not an orthodox Lacanian! Read him only if you have already understood Lacan!" This is, of course, the typically cultish--really Catholic--approach to Lacan that treats him as a holy text, pre-supposes a series of high priests who have been properly anoited and through whom one must receive the officially sanctioned interpretation. I don't read Zizek for Lacan--I read him for Zizek, and I encourage others to do likewise. *Looking Awry* and *Enjoy Your Symptom* are prehaps the easiest approaches to Zizek and his brand of cultural criticism, as they rely almost entirely on popular culture, especially film. Zizek's perverse (and often dirty) sense of humor and tendency to read against the grain at all costs are apparent on nearly every page, which makes this a very engaging read, indeed. Intellectually, there are some problems with his approach, of course--but Zizek's voice is such a refreshing change of pace, and his constant turn to a reading that you thought was impossible (but turns out to be preversely appealing) makes them all worthwhile.
Perfect - if that's what you want........2004-05-15
That's what I wanted, at least: An illustration of the key Lacanian concepts. What Zizek'bokk gives you, in fact, is the key to reading Lacan.
Lacan's seminar is an unreadable text - if that's your first/second/third etc. time. Lacan, you see, does not make conclusions. To illustrate that:
- You are writing a paper on, let's say, "Gaze". You would like to know what's Lacan's take on gaze. You open "On Gaze as Object a" chapter from "Four Fundamentals".
- you read a paragraph. You do not quite understand what you have read.
- you read the following paragraph. Now, understanding this one is even more difficult, because Lacan is assuming that you have fully understood the previous one. Ok, third paragragh ... Should I continue?
- You either think that this book is non-sense or that you are stupid. Both conclusions are wrong.
As soon as you get the background - Lacan's non-sense makes perfect sense. Zizek give this background in a highly entertaining manner (his writing is a jewel - keeps you thinking "If only I could write like that!"). I am currently doing a PhD in literature, and I have to go through plenty of academic rubbish - dry and actually, useless critical books, that make use of Lacan, Foucault and others to get published and never be read. Zizec is a breath of fresh air.
Please believe me - do not give up on Lacan, do not call him bad names, (like "idiotic nonsense, nobody ever understood him, they were all pretending to understand him because they were afraid to look stupid in the 60s") - before you read Zizec.
This book is great; those below who don't like it are clowns.......2002-09-22
Jacques Lacan's theories are completely, utterly undecipherable. The only way to begin to understand the fundamentals of psychoanalytic theory is to read somebody else writing on Lacan. And thank God Zizek does that for us. To understand Lacan, I've always had to turn to film theory critism--Laura Mulvey--but none of that ever goes beyond theories of the gaze, neglecting to dispell the mystery around some of the most basic concepts of Lacan. Zizek rolls through these various terms and ideas, always providing an exemplification of the idea in popular culture, usually in Hitchcock or within Sci-Fi genres, and then a clear-to-understand definition. So if you're confused as to what desire, drive, lack, objet a, other, Other, the Real, or the Thing are in terms of Lacanian jargon, this might be your book.
Titling awry.......2001-07-08
This book is very interesting but I think it would have been better to call it "An Introduction to Popular Culture trhough Jaques Lacan". This would be a proper title because Zizek dedicates more space to tell us what some products of popular culture are about (i.e. Stephen King's novel "Pet Sematary"; Robert Sheckley's short story "The Store of the Worlds") than to explain, or even outline, the theories of Jaques Lacan. This in itself is not a critique, I just want to say that the title can be misleading. You will not find here an explanation or an introduction to Lacan, but rather a Lacanian reading or interpretation of some products of popular culture (novels, short stories and films.) If you are looking for an easy or brief rendering of Lacan, this book will not be of much help. Moreover, I would say that the readers who will profit the most are those who are already familiar with, or at least know something about, Lacanian thought. This said, I think that Zizek's Lacanian reading of popular works is very good in some cases, and somewhat poor in others. For example, he recalls the novel "Pet Sematary" but he explains almost nothing about it. The good cases, however, make it worth the effort to read the book (Zizek's writing is complicated, but so is Lacan's), and even if you do not agree with some of his points, they are still useful to encourage thought and discussion. If you are interested in the study of popular culture, the interpretation of film and literature, or in the application of Lacanian theory to social analysis, this book will certainly be of use.
Looking Awry This Book.......2000-06-01
This book consists of three parts each of which treats so wide range of topics that there seems to be no logical consistency except Lacanian theory. In the first part, Zizek applys Lacanian theory on reality to various topics such as Zenofs paradox, Shakespearefs gHamleth, Stephen Kingfs gPet Semataryh, and Steven Spielbergfs gEmpire of the Sunh. Then, the second part focuses on Hitchcockfs works and the third part discusses gFantasy, Bureaucracy, Democracyh, however, both parts treat various works in popular culture, too. Actually, Zizek treats Lacanian theory on reality in the first part, on psychoanalysis in the second part, and on gthe Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Realh in the third part, and the third part arranges the preceding parts. But I feel that this book is about how to analyze popular culture rather than about Lacan. As an introduction to Jacques Lacan, I think this book is too difficult. However, this bookfs style which does not have a logical consistency like an ordinary thesis might be more easy to know Lacanian theory than compactly explaining book with many diagrams.
Book Description
Written by two leading film scholars, Film History: An Introduction is a comprehensive survey of film-from the backlots of Hollywood, across the United States, and around the world. As in the authors' bestselling Film Art, concepts and events are illustrated with actual frame enlargements, giving students more realistic points of reference than competing books that use publicity stills.
Customer Reviews:
The best single-volume book on film history.......2006-05-01
If you are interested in film history on the whole, please, give yourself a treat by purchasing this book. It is not cheap but it is worth every penny. I had it after a course in film history and despite being someone who usually sell or dump away my texts after graduation, I find it very hard to give this one away. Boy, am I glad I did not. As one's scope and experience in world cinema grows, so too does one's interest in this book. Bordwell and Thomas's style is academic but always enthusiastic, and theirs is the most comprehensive account of world cinema in English (pre-war Japanese cinema, anyone?). I have not found another general film book on world cinema history to match, and I will certainly be purchasing its third edition (what I have is the first) if that ever comes by.
comparison.......2006-01-26
here's a short comparison I made between the following 3 film history books:
A History of the Cinema from Its Origins to 1970 (Eric Rhode)
A Short History of the Movies (Gerald Mast)
Film History: An Introduction, (Thompson-Bordwell)
I was looking for a technical/historical overview of the development of cinema, without idiosyncratic criticism and with emphasis on the origins of film techniques, genealogy of influences of filmmakers, relevant references to history, literature and other arts, and impartial accounts of filmmakers' careers.
Instead of a verdict, I will simply quote passages about two greats:
Rhode: [about Fellini] "Fellini's greatest works are inevitably works of laughter and tears. [...] Fellini gets into trouble when he deserts feeling for thought. La Dolce vita (1959) is a sterile thematic exercise [...] In the film's first sequence, a helicopter [...] The film, intellectualy, is over. Christ has been petrified into wood; he is the tool of modern machinery [...] Although the film has nothing more to say, Fellini continues for two hours, contrasting sensual things [...] Juliet of the Spirits [...] suffers from a similar over-schematization."
Mast: [about Antonioni] "Antonioni sometimes has trouble in allowing his images to accrete meaning [...] His failure to generalize experience was to be total in La notte (1960). Lacking any understanding of how writers think and feel, his portrait of the author, [...] is so unconvincing that the spectator may be tempted to think that Giovanni's crisis of conscience is no more than a rationalization of his inability to escape from his wife's purse-strings."
Thompson-Bordwell: [about Antonioni] "From the start of his career Antonioni demonstrated a mastery of deep focus (Fig. 19.30) and the long take with camera movement (pp. 427-429). The early works also pioneered [...] Antonioni's muted dramatization of shallow or paralyzed characters found a sympathetic response in an era that also welcomed Existentialism. [...] Juan Bardem, Miklos Jansco, and Theo Angelopoulos learned from his distinctive style. Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974) and Brian De Palma's Blow-Out (1981) derive directly from Blow-Up."
nuff said...
Comprehensive, nicely packaged.......2002-02-12
I used this book in a film studies class about four years ago and I kept it because of the wealth of information. For the first time I understood the different epochs of film not only in the U.S. but also around the world. I was introduced to a wider variety of international film and the work of Eisenstein, Renoir, Kurosawa, and others. I highly recommend this book for the concise language, easy explanations, and beautiful black and white and color reproductions from many films. This book is a page turner.
Just great.......1997-02-22
this is one of the most comprensive and clear books on film history. Just great to use it as a main reference book to college student
Books:
- Film: A Critical Introduction
- Film: A Critical Introduction
- Film Directing: Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen (Michael Wiese Productions)
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- Greta Garbo: A Life Apart
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- Grindhouse: The Sleaze-filled Saga of an Exploitation Double Feature
- Grindhouse: The Sleaze-filled Saga of an Exploitation Double Feature
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